Sponge cutting anchor



July 5, 1932. o. 1.. HARDGRAVE I 1,865,564

SPONGE CUTTING ANCHOR Filed April 10, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l I 0.1.. Hard7rave I I W July 5, 1 32- o. L. HARDGRAVE 1,365,554

Filed April 10, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 5, 1932 UNITED STATES OLIVER L. HARDGRAVE, OF VAN BUREN, ARKANSAS SPONGE CUTTING ANCHOR 'Application filed April 10,

This invention relates to the propagation of sponges and more particularly to an anchor adapted to be secured to a sponge cutting and serve to retain the cutting in an upright position when dropped into the water. At the present time the better grades of sponges are becoming scarce and in order to replenish the supply of high grade sponges, the sponges are grown by artificial propagation. This process consists, of cutting a sponge, which has been removed from the ocean bed, into a number of pieces, and after attaching anchors to them drop the pieces back into the water so that they sink and are held in place upon the bed of the ocean in an upright position. A piece of sponge so deposited in the ocean will continue to grow instead of dying and in approximately 7 two years time will form a sponge of sufiicient size for commercial use.

The anchors now in use consist of discs which are about six or eight inches in diameter and to these discs the pieces of sponge are attached. The discs have flat upper and lower faces and therefore they rest flat upon the bed of the ocean and cannot have move-- ment once they have settled. Therefore, during rough weather, the sponge will bemoved relative to the cement disc to which it is attached by wire and this will often causethe wire to be broken and release the sponge or cause the sponge to be torn from the wire. It has also been found that the flat disc does not sink in a straight line and therefore the cuttings are not properly distributed and often land on their sides and either die or grow in irregular shapes.

Therefore one object of this invention is to provide an anchor for a sponge cutting which is so shaped that when it is attached to a sponge cutting and thrown overboard it will drop straight to the bottom of the:

7 water and normally remain in an upright position butbe permitted to have rocking motion and thereby serve to retain the sponge cutting in place while at the same time allowing the cutting to be tilted by the force of the water during a storm or when the tide is strong.

Another object of the invention is to so 1931. Serial No. 529,278.

shape the anchor that its upper portion may be imbedded in the underface of the cutting and thereby cause the cutting and anchor to be so associated with each other that the sponge cutting and the anchor will be rocked as a unit during rough weather. By this arrangement the spone cutting will not have motion relative to the anchor during rough weather and the sponge will not be liable to be torn loose from the anchor and also there will be less likelihood of the sponge being damaged by being torn by the wire with which the anchor is attached to the sponge.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a sectional View through a sponge cutting having one of the improved anchors attached thereto,

Figure 2 is a view of a sponge into which a cutting develops, t

Figure 3 is a perspective View of the an chor,

Figure 4 is-a View showing another form of anchor attached to a cutting.

Figure 5 is a sectional View throughthe cutting and anchor of Figure 4 with the cutting resting upon one side,

Figure 6 is a top plan view of the anchor shown in Figures 4 and 5, and

Figure 7 is a sectional View illustrating the manner of moulding the anchor shown in Figure 6.

The improved anchor shown in Figures 1 and 3, and indicated in general by the numeral 1 is formed of cement or lead and is so 5 moulded that it tapers towards its upper end. The enlarged lower portion of the body of the anchor is formed with a rounded underface and with rounded sides into which the underface merges. the lower portion of the anchor will be of greater weight than its upper portion and since it has a rounded bottom merging into rounded side faces, the'anchor will be permitted to have tilting motion but will normally remain in an upright position and I return to this position after being tilted.

The upper portion orneck 2 of the anchor has a flat upper face as shown at 3 and through this anchor is formed a passage 4 It will thus be seen that which extends axially thereof and has its lower end opening through the bottom or underface of the anchor centrally thereof and its upper end opening through the center of its upper face 3. Through this passage 1s passed a wire 5 formed of copper or any other metal found suitable which will not be caused to rust or corrode by the water into which the anchor is dropped. After the wire has been passed through the passage 4 its lower end is bent as shown at 6 to prevent the anchor from slipping off of its lower end and the upper end of the wire which projects from the top of the neck is bent to form a hook 7. This hook may be formed either before or after the upper end of the wire is thrust into the sponge cutting 8 but the bill or arm 6 1s formed after the anchor has been applied to the cutting.

This sponge cutting contitutes a portion of a live sponge which has been removed from the water and is preferably so out that 1t tapers towards its upper end and has substantially the shape of a pyramid four inches high and having an under face about three inches square. After the sponge has been cut into pieces which have their lower ends formed by portions of the outer face of the sponge, the underface of each cutting has a portion spread apart in order to form a re cess 9 intermediate its length and width. Into this recess the tapered upper portion of the anchor is thrust with the upper end portion of the wire hooked into the cutting and the anchor is held firmly against the cutting while the lower end of the wire is bent to form the arm 6.

If the hook 7 has already been formed it is moved into hooking engagement with the sponge cutting as the anchor is thrust into the recess 9 but if the upper end portion of: the wire is straight when the anchor is thrust into the cutting the hook maybe formed by applying pressure transversely of the wire after the weight is inplace, The sponge is cut into pieces and the anchors applied while submerged in salt water so that the live sponge will not be exposed to the air any longer than necessary.

After the weights have been applied to the sponge cuttings, these cuttings with the weights attached are dropped overboard and each is carried downwardly by its anchors in substantially a straight'line to the bottom of the water. When the anchors strike the bed of the ocean, they rest upon their underfaces as shown in Figure 2 and since the anchors are shaped as shown in Figures 1 and 3, they will have a tendency to remain in an upright position and return to this position in case they are rocked transversely by the surge of water. during a storm or by pressure exerted during ebb or flow of the tide. The fact that the upper portion of the anchor fits into a recess formed in the lower portion of a cutting provides a very good connection between the anchor and the sponge cutting and therefore the cutting will be prevented from moving relative to its anchor and the anchor and cutting will rock as a unit during rough weather instead of the anchor remaining stationary upon the bed of the ocean and the sponge moving transversely of the anchor and causing the wire to be broken or the sponge to be torn by the hook, and detached from the anchor before it has firmly grown to the anchor.

After the cuttings have been in the water for approximately two years, they will have grown to a sufficient size for commercial use as shown at 10 in Figure 2 and when they are removed they will be found to be substantially spherical in shape instead of irregular in shape and very little clipping will be necessary. The anchors are removed from the artificially propagated sponges and again used, but a new wire should be used each time an anchor is attached to a sponge cutting.

In Figures 1, 5, and 6, there has been illustrated another embodiment of the invention and in Figure 7 there has been shown the manner in which the anchor of Figures at, 5, and G is manufactured. This anchor which is indicated in general by the numeral 11 may be formed of concrete, lead or any other material having sufi'icient weight.

Instead of being shaped as shown in Figures 1 and 3, this anchor is substantially crescent shaped in cross section and has an arcuate underface 12 constituting a portion of a sphere and a concaved upper face 13 forming a depression or pocket 14 in the top of the anchor and defining a marginal rim 15.

Upon the upper face there has also been provided characters as shown at 16 in order that a sponge when grown may have impressed in it a marking such as shown in Figure 6 or the name or trade-mark of a sponge grower.

When this form of anchor is in use, the sponge is cut as previously explained to form cuttings 17 and an anchor is placed against the bottom of each cutting with its marginal rim forced into the cutting as shown in Figure 5. The wire strand 18 which is passed through an opening 19 formed centrally in the anchor is thrust into the cutting and then drawn outwardly until its hook 20 is firmly embedded in the sponge, after which the outer end of the wire strand is bent as shown at 21 to form an arm which bears against the underface of the anchor and serves to very firmly retain the anchor in proper engagement with the cutting. 7

W hen these cuttings are dropped into the ocean, they sink in substantially a straight line and rest upon the bottom of the ocean in an upright position as shown in Figure 4. In case one of the cuttings should come to rest upon the bottom of the ocean in a reclining position such as shown in Figure 5, or should be tilted to this position by the surge of water during a storm, it will return to an upright position as the anchor is so shaped that the major portion of its weight will be disposed outwardly of a line extending vertically through the anchor and sponge and crossing the edge of the lower portion of its rim 15. This line is indicated by the dot and dash line 22 in Figure 5 and by referring to this figure it will be seen that the portion of the anchor outside this line, or in other words, to the right of the line in this figure will be sufficient to more than counterbalance the weight of sponge and the portion of the anchor to the left of the line and thereby cause the anchor and cutting to return to the upright position. As the sponge cutting grows it fills the pocket 14 and since the characters provided upon the upper face of the anchor are raised as clearly shown in Figure 5, they will be imbedded in the sponge and when the sponges are removed from the water after growing to a sufficient size and the anchors detached, each sponge will have formed thereon a rounded portion in which is impressed a marking corresponding to the marking shown in Figure 6 or the name or trademark of the grower who planted the cuttings. Referring to Figure 7 it will be seen that when manufacturing the anchors, a recess 23 is formed in the upper face ofv a block or mould 24. The concrete, lead or other material from which the anchor is to be formed is poured into the recess or cup 23 as shown as 25 and a shaper 26 having a rounded underface and a marginal lip 27 then set in place.

The underface of this shaper has out therein characters to form the characters 16 and through the center of the shaper is formed an opening 28 through which a nail 29 may be passed. This opening 28 tapers towards its lower end and a. corresponding opening or socket 30 is formed in the center of the cup 23 'to receive the lower end of the nail. There,-

fore the shaper will be firmlyv held in place by the nail wedging tightly in the openings 28 and 30, and the center opening 19 will be formed in the anchor by the portion of the nail extending from the shaper to the bottom of the cup. v

What is claimed is: r

1. A sponge cutting, anancho-r for said cutting applied against the under face of the cutting and having a convexed arcuate under face and a concaved upper face to define a marginal rim for the anchor about the upper face thereof, and means to firmly secure said anchor against the cutting with its rim imbedded in the under face of the cutting.

2. A'sponge cutting, an anchor for said cutting applied against the under face of the cutting and having a conveXed arcuate under face and a concaved upper face to define a marginal rim for the anchor about the upper face thereof, and means to firmly secure said anchor against the cutting with its rim imbedded in the under face of the cutting, the upper face of said anchor being provided with characters to form corresponding identifying characters in a sponge grown from the cutting. V

3. A sponge cutting, an anchor for said cut ting applied against the under face of the cutting and having a convexed arcuate under face and a concaved upper face to define a marginal rim for the anchor about the upper face thereof, an opening being formed through the anchor, and a strand passed through the opening with its upper portion extending into the cutting and formed with a hook and its lower end bent against the under face of the anchor to firmly hold the anchor in place.

In testimony whereof I'aflix my signature. OLIVER L. HARDGRAVE. [L. s.] 

